A surprise tweet - and Mugabe was gone

Harare - It probably was Saviour Kasukuwere, the ousted former Zimbabwe minister and political commissar in former president Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party who broke the news of Mugabe’s resignation.

His tweet at 17:16 on Tuesday was simple, but telling.

Many had believed that Kasukuwere had been arrested as part of a crackdown by the military on a group of younger generation politicians that were propping up first lady Grace Mugabe to take over from the country's aged leader.

Tweeting under the @Hon_Kasukuwere, the Mount Darwin legislature and, who was pivotal in the ousting of those opposed to Grace Mugabe’s ascendancy, said:

Addios Baba . 37 yrs of a good run . Let’s embrace the new dispensation and build our nation. Unity is strength and peace are prerequisites for progress.

Comments poured in, some shocked that he was tweeting amid social media reports that he had been arrested and locked in a cell at the military's head office.

Earlier in the day, a picture of Kasukuwere in a plane had circulated, but some dismissed it as fake news.

But shortly before, at 18:10 on Tuesday, the speaker of parliament Jacob Mudenda stopped proceedings at the Harare International Conference Centre where senate and the house of assembly were sitting to start impeachment proceedings against the 93-year-old leader.

He read a resignation letter from Mugabe. And this was it; the end of an era and the end of a man Zimbabwe has known as its only ruler since independence from Britain in 1980.

Amid the jubilation and celebrations, Jonathan Moyo, another loyalist and close ally of Grace Mugabe, tweeted:

There'll never be anyone like Cde RG Mugabe. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have served my country under & with him. I'm proud that I stood with & by this iconic leader during the trying moments of the last days of his Presidency. Democracy requires politics to lead the gun!